


Three heads are better than one

by Zoadgo



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Missing Scene, Multi, Relationship Advice, Shit talking in space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 05:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14709887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoadgo/pseuds/Zoadgo
Summary: “Man, you really fucked up a good thing.”Murphy knows, of course, what Raven's talking about. He’s not an idiot. Which means he also knows exactly what he ruined without her telling him, thank you very much.“Oh really, no one has pointed that out to me. Thanks for the new information.” Murphy grumbles, burying his head in his arms on a console. No sooner has he blocked out the glow of the screen than a pen smacks him in the back of the head. He whips his head up to glare at Raven.-or-the one where Raven just wants to fix things, relationships included.





	Three heads are better than one

Murphy had been on his own for a long time, years on the sardine can they lived in, his self-imposed exile only broken when Bellamy would bring food into his section of the ship, rather than just leaving it in the halls. He’d gotten really good at being quiet, at not talking to people, at being bored. Hell, Murphy’s practically a master at gloomily staring at one section of sheet metal wall for hours by now.

Raven, of course, doesn’t have quite that practice, and after hardly an hour of radio silence, she pipes up.

“Man, you really fucked up a good thing.”

Murphy knows, of course, what she’s talking about. He’s not an idiot. Which means he also knows exactly what he ruined without her telling him, thank you very much.

“Oh really, no one has pointed that out to me. Thanks for the new information.” Murphy grumbles, burying his head in his arms on a console. No sooner has he blocked out the glow of the screen than a pen smacks him in the back of the head. He whips his head up to glare at Raven.

“Hey, sourpuss, I wasn’t done yet. I was going to say, you fucked up, but you could still fix it,” Raven insists, and Murphy scoffs, sliding his gaze past her to the view of Earth and space beyond the window.

“Raven, we’re going to die up here, I think fixing things with Emori is a ship that’s long since sailed. Even if we do somehow make it back down, it’s-” Murphy cuts off with a frown and a lump in his throat. Along with learning how to be bored, Murphy had learned how to obsess over everything he did wrong with Emori. And there was a lot to obsess over, so he knows, better than anyone, just how well he’d broken things. Murphy sighs sharply and tries to sum it up, “I’m not like you, I’m no good at fixing things.”

“Oh I know,” Raven says, matter of fact.

“So kind,” Murphy interjects, throwing the pen back at Raven idly.

“ _But_ ,” Raven emphasizes the word, catching the pen effortlessly, “you have me now. And I have nothing to do until Bellamy gives the word, whatever that may be.”

“So, what, you’re gonna help me fix my relationship with Emori?” Murphy groans, leaning back in his chair. Of all the things he wanted to do before he died, getting relationship advice from Raven Reyes was not high on the list. “What’s in it for you?”

“Emori’s amazing, Murphy, and I want to see her happy. And being at war with you like this, it’s killing her. She may not say it, but I know she still cares for you. That’s why it’s so hard on her when you- Well, when you’re you.” Raven shrugs as Murphy glares at her. “Hey, I think it’s part of your charm, but you were never like that with Emori before. I hate to say it, but you two were sweet together.”

“God, what are you, Emori’s fan club or something? If you like her so much, why don’t you date her.” Murphy desperately tries to swing the conversation away from memories of happier times with schoolground insults. He doesn’t want to think about the days he spent in a dirty cave, happier than he’d ever been in his life because Emori was there with him. How he’d been able to hold her, and she would smile at him, and-

Murphy shakes his head to clear the thoughts, and notices something interesting. A smothered guilty smile, and the shadow of a blush on Raven’s cheeks. Almost like-

“Wait, you and Emori?” Murphy sits up straight and actually takes an interest in the conversation for the first time ever. 

“Listen, Murphy, it’s- you guys had broken up and she was really upset, and she moved in with me, and you know how it is when you’re living in such close quarters.” Raven rambles, and Murphy laughs.

“Easy, I’m not angry or anything. I just didn’t see that coming.” Murphy chuckles to himself. The grounder and the spacewalker, huh? Well, good on them, if there are any two people in this world Murphy bears no ill will, it’s Emori and Raven. Suddenly, Murphy frowns and leans forward, twisting his seat to face Raven. “Wait, if you two are together, why do you want me and her to work it out?”

“I told you, I want her to be happy. And if that means she’s with you, so be it.” Raven’s blush fades and a sad smile forms as she looks back at Murphy, “Besides, you’re not the worst guy in the world, and I think you’ve maybe suffered enough.”

“Careful Reyes, I might think you’re sweet on me as well as Emori.” Murphy winks at Raven, and this time dodges the pen as she throws it at him. Murphy laughs a little at his own joke, and then thinks of everything Raven does. Taking it on herself to get them to space, to get them back, to stay behind on the suicide mission, to be the one that lives without Emori. Murphy sighs and grumbles, “Jesus, you and Bellamy should have a ‘wannabe martyr’ convention or something.”

“What?” Raven asks sharply, and Murphy shrugs.

“How many times have you stayed behind to die, Raven? And now, even if we don’t die, you would rather me - the cockroach - be happy, just because I’ve suffered? What about you?” Murphy gestures at Raven’s brace, “Jesus, I shot you in the spine, you’re a saint for forgiving me, let alone any of this nonsense.”

“Hey, if you don’t want to be happy-” Raven starts, hands held up in surrender, but Murphy cuts her off with a sharp shake of his head.

“No, that’s not it. You have no idea how much I want to-” Murphy frowns, trying not to think of what he would do just to be able to hold Emori’s hand again, or hug her, or even be in the same room as her without making a sarcastic comment and having her look at him like one of the bugs they used to snack on. “How much I wish things could go back to the way they were. But I already messed all of that up, so why should you have to suffer for my mistakes?”

“Listen, Murphy. What Emori and I have, it’s great. Maybe someday it could be something. But she loved you - she still loves you. And I wouldn’t feel right denying her of that, not if you still feel the same about her,” Raven insists, and Murphy turns back to the console to hide his face away in his arms again. Could some of the prisoners just wake up and kill him already? Relationships were not this complicated when they had a death wave to deal with. But no matter how much Murphy tries to block out the world, he can’t ignore Raven’s voice. “Do you still love her?”

“Of course,” Murphy groans, muffling the confession in his sleeves.

“Then let me help you be with her. Don’t you start trying to join the martyr club, occupancy is two, maximum,” Raven teases, and Murphy snorts something like a laugh. 

How could he say yes to something like that, though? There’s no guarantee Emori would take him back, and even if she would, she shouldn’t. Not after everything he’s done, and not if it costs her relationship with Raven to get there. Why are there so many rules for this? Why couldn’t Emori get to have it all, the love and support of Raven, and- whatever it is Murphy brings to the table. Sarcasm and a willingness to torture or kill people for her, he guesses.

“Why does it have to be one or the other?” Murphy muses out loud, not even really realizing he spoke until Raven replies.

“What do you mean?”

Murphy rolls his head to look at her, her brow furrowed in confusion. “I was just thinking, it’s stupid that she only gets to be with one of us. She’s happy with you, so why should she have to leave you just to be with me? That is, if you’re right and she still loves me.”

“Well, I-” Raven frowns deeply, “I don’t know.”

“See? The rules are stupid,” Murphy points out, not to any end other than to bitch about it out loud. “Why couldn’t the three of us just, I don’t know, figure something out?”

“The three of us? Like, you and Emori, and me and Emori, and you and me?” Raven asks, and there’s that blush again, prompting Murphy to raise an eyebrow at her.

“Seems like you don’t hate the idea,” Murphy teases, glad Raven doesn’t have another pen to throw at him given the look she gives him. “Say, you haven’t been fantasizing about me, have you?”

“Obviously not,” Raven huffs, not convincing at all, and Murphy simply grins at her. 

“So, the mighty Raven Reyes fancies the humble cockroach, huh? Man, what a revelation. You know, there are better ways to pass the time if we’re about to die.” Murphy winks at Raven, not really serious but thoroughly enjoying how flustered she gets.

“It’s not- listen, we’ve been in space for six years, it’s enough to make anyone go crazy-”

“Aww, are you saying you’re crazy for me? So sweet,” Murphy drawls, and Raven glares daggers at him.

“Give me my pen back, and forget anything I said about helping you, ever,” Raven demands.

“Nope, you’re just going to throw it at me again.” Murphy tucks the pen thoroughly between his folded arms and the console, head still resting atop them. “And you already made the offer, no take backs.”

“Exactly, I don’t have anything else to throw- Wait.” Raven sits up straight, like a meerkat sensing something in the distance. “Does that mean you’ll let me help?”

“Uhm,” Murphy stammers. He hadn’t really thought it through when he’d said that, but… He can’t deny, being around people again has made that ache for what Emori and him had feel fresh and painful again. “On one condition.”

“What’s that?” Raven asks, eager.

“You don’t break up with her,” Murphy insists. “You don’t have to hook up with me or anything, but if Emori’s cool being with both of us, so am I.”

“You’re sure about that? You won’t be jealous, or-”

Murphy waves off Raven’s protests, “Jealousy isn’t a thing Emori and I ever did. And besides, I think I’ve hurt you enough for one lifetime.”

Raven studies Murphy carefully for a moment, and he simply remains slumped over and lets her. Lets her see that this isn't a trap, that if it means getting to see Emori smile again he’d do anything. Especially something like this, that isn’t even bad in his mind. Hell, he’d be thrilled for Emori to be with him and with someone else, so he doesn’t have to try to be everything that he isn’t, in order to make her happy.

“You know, when you say things like that you aren’t so bad, Murphy,” Raven admits, and then with a shrug, “Okay. I won’t break up with her. But you really have to try this time.”

Murphy sits up and stretches his neck before nodding. He knows that, how many times had he dreamed of being able to go back, just so he could do things a little different? If Raven can help him do so, he’d be a fool to turn it down. 

“Well then, where do we start?”

**Author's Note:**

> it's a silly little drabble but i love it. we need more poly on this show.
> 
> eternal thanks to Ets for the edit, and y'all are more than welcome to talk to me about these nerds [on tumblr](http://jonnmurphy.tumblr.com) ♥


End file.
